ID Please

claire1_2008August 5, 2008

I've been spending most of my time in the orchid forum but I also have a bromeliad that I purchased last year. The nursery had it on sale because the flower was gone. It has pups and the mother still looks good a year after flowering so maybe it's not a bromeliad. Can you let me know what this is? The closest that I can come to is Tillansdia but it doesn't really match those either.

That's a toughie without a flower, Claire. It does look like a bromeliad, but not a Tillandsia. Are the margins spiny or is that just the photo? If it's smooth-margined I'm thinking Vriesea, maybe V. bleherae or one of its hybrids.

If it's got spines then I'm not sure. It almost looks like a Fosterella, but it's a little too glossy. How about a closer view?

You really can't tell much about the ID of an orchid without a flower either. But if I can get the general species or family group than that would do alot in getting it the right temps and light.

I think it might be a Vriesea Bleherae or maybe a Vriesea Appenii. It didn't look a lot like the Cryptbergia 'Rubra' when I googled it and I couldn't find anything on a Crytanthusy. It doesn't really have spines but you can still get a nice little papercut from the leaves so there's something there - maybe micro spines? There are so many plants clumped together that I really can't tell who the mother is/was. It's still putting out more pups.

I just moved it from Oregon this spring so, like my orchids, it wasn't getting the light or temp that it wanted to initiate blooms. Given more time in the Southwest I hope to be able to confirm id with a bloom. I've got it in with my orchids and it's planted in an orchid terrestrial mix. I've just transplanted it into a 4 inch pot. I've heard so much about orchids and Bromeliads being grown together that they must like a lot of the same conditions.

I'm only seeing one photo on each of those links, Claire, and the last one is the same as the first. Does Snapfish have an HTML code for each photo that you can copy and paste directly to the message?

It gives a little paper cut, huh? Hmmm..... now I'm really confused. A Vriesea wouldn't do that but it doesn't look like anything else I can think of. Gonzer meant to say it looked Cryptanthus-y, but it doesn't look like a Crypt to me, or a xCryptbergia.

Gee, maybe it's not a brom after all. I guess we'll just have to wait for the flowers unless someone else recognizes it.

Claire, here are 2 pictures of xCryptbergia Rubra growing in my garden. The one is in total shade and green. The other one - the same clone - is growing in a very exposed spot on the pavement and not looking very good. It is not as dark as it is in summer and it also has some cold damage on it's leaves, but it is flowering at the moment. It has some fine but very sharp spines.

Wow, These latest posts all look like my plant. I'm going to continue calling it a Bromeliad but I guess I'll have to wait for a flower to pin down the name.

lisaclv,
I've broken skin on the plant when I'm cleaning the leaves. I get them wet and than grasp the center and slide my thumb down to the end. It doesn't happen if I'm careful and don't hold too firmly or move too fast so it's by no means dangerous but it does feel like there's something along the edges.

Thank you everyone for your input. At least I'm more confident now about what it might be. I'll also check the care for those listed above and see if there is anything I can change to prompt a flower.

There is some resemblance, Japie, but the trouble is that the xCryptbergia has silvery scurf on the underside of the leaf, and Claire's plant doesn't. Also the color of hers is more purple than red.

Here's the leaf margin of Vriesea sucrei:

Sorry, not a very good photo, and I don't have one with pups, which would look more similar. You can see it has a bit of a rough edge, but not enough to cut your skin. Still, I'm going to stick with that for now... ;-)